This is precisely the sort of situation Sri Lanka experienced last month, in the face of a worsening pandemic, being forced to choose between sacrificing the economy to implement a lockdown, or risking public health safety by allowing activity to continue. Ostensibly, the country opted to prioritise public health over the economy, implementing an islandwide lockdown since 20 August in a bid to curb the alarming rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths. First of all, we need to ask ourselves, why did we opt for a lockdown? Let us not forget that it was businesses themselves that chose to close their shutters in fear for their lives, before the Government stepped in to declare a lockdown. However, at the rate we are going, Sri Lanka may end up stuck in a never-ending cycle of a spike in cases, calls for a lockdown from health authorities, insistence by the Government that the economy can’t survive another lockdown, further and louder calls for a lockdown from the health authorities and the political opposition, and eventually the Government wilting under the pressure and imposing a nominal lockdown with plenty of movement.

Source: The Nation September 16, 2021 18:33 UTC